THANK YOU NICK NICHOLAS FORD ...for Sponsoring the Esperon House, and pledging 2 more house sposorships in 2007-2008!Serving Citrus County since 1993

 

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The Esperon House Dedication
July 14, 2007


Family Builds It's Nest
 By Keri Lynn McHale - Citrus County Chronicle
                                                                                                                                                             July 16, 2007
First came love, then came marriage, then came two babies … and a brand new house.

On Saturday, members of the Citrus County office of the international nonprofit organization, Habitat for Humanity, gave the Esperon family the keys to their new home on East Ryan Street in Inverness.
 
Outside the home, Aleana, 19, stood with their 15-month-old son, Demarion, on her hip. Her husband, Erwin, 21, held a portable baby seat with their newborn daughter, Kamina, inside. The couple met four years ago while attending school in Hawaii. Two years after that meeting, they wed in Floral City and started a family.

The couple smiled at each other and took turns holding their son as members of community organizations and invested individuals handed them house-warming gifts. The First Presbyterian Church of Crystal River presented quilts and artwork. The Crystal River Women’s Club donated a mailbox and fire extinguisher. Members of Xi Nu Upsilon Sorority presented an American flag and bench.

One by one, citizens of the community stepped up, congratulated the family and presented house decorations, gift certificates, plaques and much more. Others financially backed essentials to the home, such as shutters, blinds and a utility shed. Local veterans led the Pledge of Allegiance and prayers of blessing were offered. Throughout the dedication ceremony, Demarion snuggled with a blue-and-white quilt.

“It’s a dream come true for the family … to be a very small part of that is very rewarding,” said Dora Hunt, chief financial officer of Nick Nicholas Ford, house sponsor.

Aleana and Erwin Esperon are the first generation in their families to become homeowners. In Hawaii, real estate was too expensive, the young couple said.

“I’m really grateful,” Erwin Esperon said to the crowd, adding for him, meeting new people and building a house were the most fulfilling aspects of the process.

Janice Coiley, neighbor, mentor and volunteer, was one of many who impacted the family. She kept the couple motivated to complete their 500 hours of “sweat equity.” Homeowners must complete 250 hours of volunteer work at another Habitat-sponsored house, within the Habitat organization or through other nonprofit organizations, said William Metzendorf, president of the Habitat for Humanity Citrus County Board of Directors. The initial 250 hours must be completed before the groundbreaking of the future homeowners’ new residence. At times, it was tedious, but the vision of her new house kept her going, Aleana Esperon said.

“I’m just so proud of them, because they’re so young,” Coiley said.

The homeowners are responsible for completing 250 hours of labor at the site of their new home, in addition to the initial 250 hours. Erwin Esperon had to work many hours on his own due to his wife’s pregnancy with Kamina.

“It’s a hand up, not a hand out,” Coiley said.

In order to be considered for a Habitat house, future homeowners must fill out an application and go through a credit check and orientation, Coiley said. Homeowners are required to pay a $1,500 down payment and are responsible for the mortgage, taxes and insurance, Metzendorf said.

Habitat for Humanity of Citrus County was inducted by its parent organization in April 1993, according to a Habitat pamphlet. Since its induction, volunteers, contractors, leaders of businesses and many more have dedicated time and financial aid to build 33 affordable homes, housing a total of 47 adults and 77 children in the community.

For the family, this is “a new start, a new beginning,” Erwin Esperon said. He served cake, donated by Publix Super Markets Inc., while people toured the house.

“A nice big yard for the babies,” Aleana Esperon said as she looked at her newborn daughter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graduate mom: Resident credits faith, family and Habitat for Humanity

Janice Coiley and her 5-year-old son Jimmy Ahmadi pose Friday outside their Habitat for Humanity home in Inverness./BRIAN LaPETER/Chronicle
                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                               By Nancy Kennedy
                                                                                                                       Citrus County Chronicle

                                                                                                      May 13, 2007

Janice Coiley remembers holding her  infant son Jimmy in her arms and seeing in his face the face of the future.

She was 39 and married to an Iranian man who didn’t love her. After they married, he told her he had only wanted to get his green card.

 Although she loved him, she loved her son more and knew she couldn’t raise a child in a home filled with tension and constant arguing.

So, she sold everything she had and, with her mom’s help, drove from her home in Seattle, Wash., to her mother’s home in Homosassa.

It took them 11 days, and she’s never looked back.

“When I held Jimmy in my arms, I knew I was invested in this now. I needed to care. I needed to become a teacher,” she said.

With thanks to her mother, to Habitat for Humanity and to God, Coiley received her diploma from the University of Central Florida on May 5, graduating with a degree in early childhood education.

Becoming a teacher had been Coiley’s childhood dream. Instead of the usual toys and games, she preferred her red pen so she could “correct” papers and a slate chalkboard so she could “teach” her brothers and sisters.

She grew up in Cape Cod, Mass., and after high school, went on to broadcasting school. She moved to Los Angeles and worked at an animation studio, then moved up to Washington, settling in Seattle.

She had a string of fun jobs, including working for an Alaskan cruise line in customer service. She lived on the cruise ship for a month at a time. It was her job to have fun and make sure the passengers had fun.

“Eventually, I got tired of doing for rich people on vacation,” she said. “I wanted to do something better, more meaningful.”

Her next job was as a career consultant at a computer school, and as she would walk past the classrooms, the memories of her childhood days pretending to be a teacher would nag at her.

But by then, she had met and fallen in love and married Jimmy’s father. That was in 1999. In 2002, she left her husband.

In January 2003, sharing her mother’s two-bedroom mobile home, Coiley started attending classes at Central Florida Community College and worked as a substitute teacher at local Citrus County elementary schools.

Meanwhile, Jimmy started attending Crystal River Preschool. The plan was that Coiley’s mom would watch Jimmy while Coiley took classes at night, but her mom had a stroke and Coiley faced dropping out of school.

That’s when a teacher at Jimmy’s preschool, Brenda Roach, stepped in to become more than her son’s teacher. She became a friend and a link in the chain that got Coiley to where she is today.

“I barely knew Brenda,” Coiley said, “but she offered to watch Jimmy. That enabled me to do my night classes.”

At the time, Roach was working on her own Habitat for Humanity house.

“Since I didn’t have any money to pay her, I started donating (sweat equity) hours toward her Habitat home,” Coiley said. “Brenda’s the one who suggested I apply for a Habitat home.

“My mom — thank God for her — let us live with her, but it was tight quarters and Jimmy was getting bigger and wilder,” she said.

Still, Coiley didn’t know how she could manage it, until Roach told her: “Yes, you can. You have to do this for you and for Jimmy.”

“She took it and ran with it,” Roach said. “She found out, ‘I can do it.’ She’s the one who told me to go back to school, so because of her, I’m doing it.”

Coiley worked on the organization’s newsletter, and within a short time she was putting in sweat equity hours on her own Habitat home. Members from her church, Nature Coast Community Church, helped with the construction and she and Jimmy moved in November 2004.

“She’s worked really hard to get to where she is now,” said Bonnie Peterson, resource development director for Habitat for Humanity of Citrus County. “I’m impressed by her energy and commitment to getting her education and to giving her son a better life. Her level of ability blew me away.”

“Habitat gave me a stable environment for Jimmy so I could do this,” Coiley said about her recent graduation. She also recently completed a 14-week internship at Hernando Elementary School and has submitted her application for a full-time teaching position. Now she’s waiting.

Jimmy will start kindergarten in August at Pleasant Grove Elementary School in Inverness. “In a perfect world, I’d get a job there,” Coiley said.

“I have to credit everything I’ve achieved to God,” she said. “At my graduation ceremony in Orlando, Mom was there, Jimmy was there, my friend Ginger and her daughter were there. I got to stand up — I was wearing my honors cords. Not bad for an almost-44-year-old single mother.”